Danish minister quits over lie

Denmark’s foreign aid minister has resigned after lying to Parliament about his role in endorsing huge travel expenses for a South Korean-based environmental organisation.

Christian Friis Bach says that as board member of the Global Green Growth Institute that advises developing nations on low-carbon growth policies he had approved guidelines allowing government donations to be used on first class flights and luxury hotels.

Last month, he told MPs he was not involved in approving such expenses.

The Danish chairman of the group, Lars Loekke Rasmussen, has said he spent more than US $190,000 of the institute’s money during nine trips.

In 2011, Denmark donated 30m kroner to the institute over a three-year period.

Mr Friis Bach’s resignation took effect immediately on Thursday.